We lack fire on offense and this week the defense could not get Green Bay off the field.

I have yet to see an uptempo offense - even when we are down and time ticks away. We look nonchalant. Where other teams are at the line when the ball is spotted after a guy runs out of bounds, we start our huddle then and burn another 30 seconds ... repeatedly ...

Football is a game of emotion. We currently lack the urgency the team that finished 7-0 had.

At least the Lions D is ordinary and we are at home. We need the crowd to show up and we need the offense to give the crowd something to cheer about.

DarthMonk wrote:We lack fire on offense and this week the defense could not get Green Bay off the field.

I have yet to see an uptempo offense - even when we are down and time ticks away. We look nonchalant. Where other teams are at the line when the ball is spotted after a guy runs out of bounds, we start our huddle then and burn another 30 seconds ... repeatedly ...

Football is a game of emotion. We currently lack the urgency the team that finished 7-0 had.

At least the Lions D is ordinary and we are at home. We need the crowd to show up and we need the offense to give the crowd something to cheer about.

Oh yeah, and everyone else lost too.

RG3's running plays have been removed from our offensive play calling, which makes the O plain vanilla and easy to defend...I'm all for making him less exposed to injury, but take away that much of the offense and this is what we get. I don't have a clue what the hell's going on with the D....they were much better last year with key players out due to injuries...now we have those players back and the D sucks...makes no sense....

I agree man. WE LOST OUR IDENTITY. Offensively the option of RG3 being able to run with his legs out of the pocket or the read option.

Defensively our base is stopping the run. We try to get cute and try all of these exotic looks when we should be simple and dictate what they do. Biggers at safety week 1 proved the idiocy. Haslett states this D is based off the Steelers, however Pittsburgh stay unique to what their trying to do and would never have their inside lbs thinking to consistently drop back compared to pursuing. Not Londons nor Perrys strength.

No identity. Gotta stay with what works. I do believe we can change into other identities, however we will be losing while changing because transition takes time and personnel changes will have to be made.

Coaching hasnt been the best either with not having a feel for game. I feel not going for it on that 4th and 6 at the end of the 1st qtr was a real turn of the game. I agree in not putting the kicker in bad position, but we were only down 10-0 at that point.

Finally expand the variety of routes that Moss and Morgan run. Lbs and dbs are literally sitting on their predictable short routes. You have to run Morgan amd Moss deep occassionally to keep the D honest. They both have to run better routes and catch as well.

Would love to know who got more snaps today. Hankerson or Morgan. IMO Hankerson has so much more to offer as a WR because he catches the ball. This isn't the first time that Morgan has tipped a ball or just flat out dropped a pass that the defender picked off. Hankerson has size, speed and ability. The only thing he is missing is experience and if we're going to play guys at the end of games like today, Hankerson would probably be a good guy to get some rapport going with RG3. Lastly, what the hell is going on with Fred Davis. They keep him in for blocking and seem to be featuring Reed for passing situations.

I must be in the minority, but I'm much happier w what we are seeing from rgiii then what cry baby eli is doing in NY.. our wide outs are decent but probably the weakest in the division... And we still have decent numbers from bob.. Thank god we aren't watching 4 int games!

Its on the defense. No excuse for giving up 1000 yards plus in two games.
The Ravens and Steelers for years played with mostly a defensive team with little offensive support. So I am not giving our defense a pass. They have been horrible. Other then Kerrigan who is a stud. Put it on the defense and Haslett.

Sure our offense isn't firing on all cylinders.
RG3 is coming off of reconstructive knee surgery. Why cant the rest of the team step it up? Even so RG3 is putting up a good effort out there. Our offense has managed to put up at least three Tds a game. That is something.

The 49ers, Jets, Patriots, Browns and Jaguars all failed to put up at least 14 points. Our offense put up 20.

Tom Brady after his ACL surgery did not look good when he came back. The rest of the team stepped up. Peyton Manning returning from spinal surgery did not look like the Peyton we all knew. It took him a couple games to get back.

I found myself yelling at the tv saying things like Come on RG. When in reality it should be come on defense. We need you to help carry the load since our QB is not 100 percent. Yet our QB still looks pretty good considering the circumstances.

Freaking defense Haslett has to get it together. We know RG3 is giving us his all. I expect that from our defense too. Haslett is playing checkers while the rest of the league is playing chess. Look at the strides our offense has made. Now look at how the defense looks in the same time. Four years and no progress with Haslett. My patience has been thin with Haslett. After this year I want him gone. I do hope he can get this defense better this year but seriously he has sucked for the majority of time he has been with our team. I would say fire Haslett now but I am not sure if the other assistants would be any better. Then again could it get any worse? This may seem like I am overreacting. But seriously am I? Our defense is putrid. Someone has to be accountable. We all know Haslett by now.

The defense was really bad, but I swear a lot of yall would drink RGIII's bathwater if he asked you to.

If he isn't 100%, he shouldn't be on the field. He does NOT get a pass for rushing back and holding the offense back. Giving all of his 80% or whatever his health really is, isn't good enough and he doesn't deserve a pat on the back for it. Kirk Cousins should be our starting QB if Robert cannot help this team win.

As far as the defense is concerned.

- Fletcher is 1000 years old.
- Meriweather is still fragile.
- Hall is Hall.
- Doughty is Doughty.
- Rambo is a 6th round pick, despite the kool-aid we all choose to drink. He showed his true colors in the preseason.
- Amerson is a rookie but looks decent.

All that being said, they are who we knew them to be. With the CAP ramification and lack of picks to get RGIII, why did people think they were magically going to turn into a top 5 defense? People are talking about the Steelers and the Ravens, teams with multiple HOF players on them.... We have one and he didn't accumulate that resume mainly from being a Redskin.

And honestly, the defense could have had 4 interceptions in the 1st half and the offense would have done exactly jack-sh** with it. But I'm sure someone would have expected 4 more and complained that we didn't get 8.

Without the threat of RG Jr. Jr. running, the read option is just the read handoff. Teams are keying on Morris, and he's not getting the same holes. I'm all for protecting RGIII's knee, but he has to be able to play his game, or we won't go anywhere this year.

SkinsJock wrote:RG3 is NOT at 100% and the offense has been changed ... this will take some time ...

the defense is the bigger issue IMHO ... over 500 yards in each game is just BS

Oh my god man, aren't you the guy who was telling us all summer RGIII wouldn't be out there to start the season unless he was 100%?

Just kidding with you, and I completely agree about the defense. In my mind, its the defense' job to help keep these games close. By the time the offense gets going at all, we're down 24-0? Come on. Just read through CLL's assessment of the defense, and yeah that's a hard dose of reality.

I'm kind of tired of hearing the radio guys complaining that RGIII isn't running enough. I don't want to see him running personally, because there is no long term future in that. I want to see him delivering passes with accuracy and moving the ball that way.

We have the Lions at home and the Raiders next. Haz needs to get the defensive problems solved. I refuse to believe we don't have an offense capable of beating those two teams.

riggofan wrote:I'm kind of tired of hearing the radio guys complaining that RGIII isn't running enough. I don't want to see him running personally, because there is no long term future in that. I want to see him delivering passes with accuracy and moving the ball that way.

1. This offense will not work if RGIII doesn't run. Why? See point #2.2. RGIII is NOT a pocket passer AT ALL. Can he makes reads and throws from the pocket? Yes. Theres more to it than that. RGIII cannot move within the pocket. He cannot buy himself time. His legs are either on or off, there's no middle ground, yet... Those skills were supposed to be groomed this offseason, but he was too busy rehabbing.3. He needs to run SMARTLY this season to alleviate pressure off of Alfred.

This line is not built for drop back passers, especially ones that are not mobile within the pocket. And honestly, we saw this last year but his pocket awareness isn't THAT great.

riggofan wrote:We have the Lions at home and the Raiders next. Haz needs to get the defensive problems solved. I refuse to believe we don't have an offense capable of beating those two teams.

We don't... How is the defense the reason for the offense being incapable of scoring...? When the offense is on the field they're incapable of scoring until the opposing defense plays soft. Regardless of what our defense is doing, the offense can't score.

Really folks, our offense just went up against to really mediocre defenses and were completely SHUTDOWN. COMPLETELY SHUTDOWN. And they offense only scores when we're down by 21+ points... It's not coincidence, the opposing defenses are playing soft.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:The defense was really bad, but I swear a lot of yall would drink RGIII's bathwater if he asked you to.

If he isn't 100%, he shouldn't be on the field. He does NOT get a pass for rushing back and holding the offense back. Giving all of his 80% or whatever his health really is, isn't good enough and he doesn't deserve a pat on the back for it. Kirk Cousins should be our starting QB if Robert cannot help this team win.

+1,000,000

I am getting sick of hearing how well Griffin "settled down and played late in the game". For 2 weeks straight now, he's put up some nice stats in garbage time when the game was already over. But because he's Griffin, the excuses get made. He should have been benched at half time (for at least a series) in week 1, and he should have been benched at half yesterday. People need to lay off the koolaid. He is mediocre without the run threat he had last year.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:1. This offense will not work if RGIII doesn't run. Why? See point #2.2. RGIII is NOT a pocket passer AT ALL. Can he makes reads and throws from the pocket? Yes. Theres more to it than that. RGIII cannot move within the pocket. He cannot buy himself time. His legs are either on or off, there's no middle ground, yet... Those skills were supposed to be groomed this offseason, but he was too busy rehabbing.

If this is true then we wasted those draft picks on RGIII. He'll never last in the league if he has to run as much as he did last year.

I understand your point about mobility and moving out of the pocket. I'm talking specifically though about designed running plays. There was a lot of griping on the radio yesterday that RGIII wasn't running.

Obviously the defense isn't to blame for the offense not putting up points, but is it really so unusual for the offense to start a game with a three and out? Or to not put up points early in the game?

Do you know how many points the Broncos put up in the first quarter yesterday? ZERO. In the meantime, their defense did their job and held the Giants to THREE.